Noir: crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak
sleazy settings
I have had a love of this dark genre for a long time. Noir
is the underbelly of fiction, the place where darker themes are explored. I can
sit and devour hours watching The Maltese Falcon, The Long Goodbye, Casablanca ,
Detour, City That Never Sleeps and so many more. (Thank you God for Netflix!) Though,
Noir is much more than film.
There are some fantastic books with hardboiled detectives,
grifters, sexy molls, tragic cops and femme fatales that will fuel your
imagination and make you crave more. So I’m going to challenge you to grab a
book and step into the shadows just out of the streetlamp’s reach and join me
in reading as many of these fantastic stories as we can in 2014.
How it works:
The Challenge begins January
6, 2014 and runs through December
31, 2014 . You can join the challenge at any time between those
dates.
1. Sign up with the Inlinkz tool below with a link to your
acceptance/announcement post. Stating the challenge and what goal level (listed
below) you are going for.
2. There will be a new inlinkz tool posted on the challenge page
of Gladiator’s Pen once a week (hopefully up by each Monday) so you can add the
url to the post with your progress, book review, or talk about something
Noirish. Post at least once a month and link back to the challenge page so we
can help each other gain new readers/followers as well. Even better, if you would like to embed the
linky list onto your post there will be a link available so you can pick up the
code.
If you don’t have a blog, that’s okay too. Just post to your
Facebook, G+ or Twitter with a link back to the challenge page for others to
join in and find some great new books and authors too.
Challenge Levels
Read 1-5 books Grifter
Read 5-10 books Cool Cop
Read 11-15 books Hard Boiled Detective.
Read 16-20 books Femme Fatale
Read 20+ books Sam
Spade
Here are a few suggestions
for some great Noir reads to get you started
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
The Black Dahlia (#1 in the L.A. Quartet series) by James
Ellroy
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Joyland by Stephen King
Gold Coast by Elmore Leonard
Storm Front (Dresden
Files #1) by Jim Butcher
If you can, try to post your reviews to Amazon or Goodreads
also or even give the books you enjoy some stars to support a great author.
Thanks for being a part of our first reading challenge here on Gladiator’s Pen
and I hope you enjoy your journey into the darker side of the streets. :)
Do you have a favorite Noir film or book?
Grab the button!
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